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Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

I've never been to this forum until today, but I had a very scary thing happen; my flashlight or batteries exploded. I had never heard of this happening before, so as you can imagine, I was scared to death. I put the flashlight down after using it about 10 minutes (the battery started to go dim while I was using it and getting hot). I waited for the thing to cool off while I ate a sandwhich. All of a sudden BANG! The sound was like a firecracker or gunshot. At first, I didn't know where it came from. I actually started looking at my windows to see if there was a gunshot that came through the window. I then noticed a very pungent odor, and this is how I realized what had happened. I reluctantly opened the flashlight to find black residue inside the battery case and all over the batteries. One of the batteries seems to be fused inside the case, and it won't come out. The name of the battery is Cyclops. The brand of flashlight is Cyclops, and the battery is a CR123A. It says made in China. I normally have the flashlight in my pocket, and I can only imagine what could have happened if I'd followed my normal routine. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Welcome to the forums... I hope your okay because the odor you described is toxic and dangerous to breathe. And I hope you washed your hands if you attempted to handle the battery residue which is also very dangerous.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

It's becoming a regular occurrence around here. I'd be leary of batteries from China. I've heard of people's cellphones going "pop" trying to use a cheaper brand Chinese battery.

A few times out of countless thousands of undoccumented perfectly good batteries is hardly a "regular occurrence", but I agree on the Chinese battery part. Only buy well known branded batteries. Buying cheap, unknown batteries is like buying cheap, unknown brakes for your car. It's just not safe.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

this is almost unbelievable- we have reports of, is it 3 or 4 CR123 flashlights exploding in the last few weeks?...

room200- please be sure to dispose of the entire flashlight- or clean it out while wearing a gas mask or something... if you start to feel sick- get the the hospitol immediatally and tell them you have been exposed to a lithium battery "venting with flame" incident... there are very serious health risks accociated with the toxic gases released.. i think it was hydrogen flouride(hydroflouric acid) mentioned in another thread..... attacks the nervous system and other tissue and can wrech havoc on the body.. small doses can cause major health issues...

""Hydrogen fluoride is irritating to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes, and inhalation may cause respiratory irritation or hemorrhage. Systemic effects can occur from all routes of exposure and may include nausea, vomiting, gastric pain, or cardiac arrhythmia. Symptoms may be delayed for several days, especially in the case of exposure to dilute solutions of hydrogen fluoride (less than 20%).
Hydrofluoric acid is corrosive and also causes destruction of deep tissues when fluoride ions penetrate the skin. Absorption of substantial amounts of hydrogen fluoride by any route may be fatal.
The systemic effects of hydrogen fluoride are due to increased fluoride concentrations in the body which can change the levels of calcium, magnesium, and potassium in the blood.
Hypocalcemia can cause tetany, decreased myocardial contractility, and possible cardiovascular collapse while hyperkalemia has been suggested to cause ventricular fibrillation leading to death.""

if you were in an enclosed enviroment with the flashlight after the explosion for any significant length of time- please keep a close watch on your self and seek medical attention if neccessary-

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Originally Posted by Planterz

A few times out of countless thousands of undoccumented perfectly good batteries is hardly a "regular occurrence",

I was speaking as in this forum, not in general.

However, I have opened many a camera/flashlight/device containing alkalines to find the flaky white stuff, but have yet to have any devices explode on me. (save the car battery story mentioned) I can replace a device, cannot replace an eye.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Some of the cheap Chinese lithiums still don't have vent holes, but that didn't seem to make a difference in some of the other explosion threads.

Do you by any chance know if the batteries were mixed, such as in one being used more than the other? I'm not familiar with the Cyclops and I'm too lazy too Google at this time in the morning, so how many cells does the light use? 2 cells?

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

For me personally i have two children and my girlfriend in the house and i refuse to have lithium batteries in the house. I find i can get plenty of light from NI-MH powered lights with a few mods. I know that lithium powered lights are regarded as the ultimate but to me my family is the ultimate.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Originally Posted by InfidelCastro

Do you by any chance know if the batteries were mixed, such as in one being used more than the other? I'm not familiar with the Cyclops and I'm too lazy too Google at this time in the morning, so how many cells does the light use? 2 cells?

I wondered the same thing, a quick google search only gave me a link to a Cyclops headlight (not a bad name) and a 2xCR123 model

If the OP does not come back to confirm then I suspect that we may have another 2 cell light.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

To answer your questions:

1. No, the batteries were not mixed. The unit came as 2 flashlights with the batteries already installed from Sam's Club. The units are new and have only been used about 10 times. The interesting thing is that BOTH flashlight drained at the same time. They were both as brite-white as could be when I was fixing my computer.

2. They were not short-circuited, unless they came they way from the factory. In which case, the flashlights probably wouldn't have worked.

3. Yes I did wash my hands, but I inhaled a significant amount of the fumes, but I think I'm O.K. The only thing was, I didn't know any better, so I left the batteries out on the table by my bed as I slept. Thank you for your concerns also!

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Welcome to CPF Room200

Glad you are o.k.

Keep an eye on your health because some of the effects of this chemical exposure could be delayed according to some of the other recent threads. I hope you contact Sam's where you purchased the light. I'm sure they would be very interested so they can determine if there is a safety concern for their customers. I would guess at the very least there is inadequate warnings on the package and instructions regarding Lithium batteries. These large warehouse wholesalers have the clout to get things like that addressed quickly.

Take care and I hope you stick around, this is a pretty cool place and great bunch of people.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

FYI- Almost EVERY brand of CR123A is now made in China including Sanyo so I would be hesitant to make a blanket statement about China. I will say that out of 40 companies that supplied us samples three years ago, 30 were just outright crap. 13 did not even have PTC protection. Do beware of brands that have no track record or big name. But also keep in mind a lot of the big names are made in China. Obviously Sanyo will have better manufacturing and QC than others there.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Originally Posted by batterystation

FYI- Almost EVERY brand of CR123A is now made in China including Sanyo so I would be hesitant to make a blanket statement about China. I will say that out of 40 companies that supplied us samples three years ago, 30 were just outright crap. 13 did not even have PTC protection. Do beware of brands that have no track record or big name. But also keep in mind a lot of the big names are made in China. Obviously Sanyo will have better manufacturing and QC than others there.

China?

==>SF and SL brand Lithiums explicitly states its made in the USA... <==

China's Lithium supply is pretty much contaminated, only US's Authentic Lithium is 99.9999% pure and cells are protected from fires!

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

In all this CR123A research and testing, I just happened to notice that I had just received my first load of Sanyos that said Made In China. No joke. I had never received them before that were made there. New factory I guess. I understand Sanyo is shifting a large part of their manufacturing process of many products to China. I remember as a kid to beware of "made in Japan" and yet now Japan is considered golden. There is a lot of good stuff that comes from China too. Heck, there is crap made right here in the USA too. To my knowledge there is only one or two remaining CR123A factories in the USA and I believe they are Duracell and Energizer. They both still say Made in USA on them.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Originally Posted by room200

To answer your questions:

3. Yes I did wash my hands, but I inhaled a significant amount of the fumes, but I think I'm O.K. The only thing was, I didn't know any better, so I left the batteries out on the table by my bed as I slept. Thank you for your concerns also!

If you inhaled significant fumes from the venting with flame, let me URGE you to get medical attention NOW, even if you don't have any symptoms yet. The symptoms are typically delayed, and there can be significant and dangerous systemic side effects.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Originally Posted by batterystation

In all this CR123A research and testing, I just happened to notice that I had just received my first load of Sanyos that said Made In China. No joke. I had never received them before that were made there. New factory I guess. I understand Sanyo is shifting a large part of their manufacturing process of many products to China. I remember as a kid to beware of "made in Japan" and yet now Japan is considered golden. There is a lot of good stuff that comes from China too. Heck, there is crap made right here in the USA too. To my knowledge there is only one or two remaining CR123A factories in the USA and I believe they are Duracell and Energizer. They both still say Made in USA on them.

Times change, nowadays alot of the workforce is shifted to China because of cheap labor. At the present time I prefer to buy things non-china:

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

==>SF and SL brand Lithiums explicitly states its made in the USA... <==

China's Lithium supply is pretty much contaminated, only US's Authentic Lithium is 99.9999% pure and cells are protected from fires!

Can we perhaps keep this out of the threads dealing with the problems with CR123 lights? So far it's not at all clear that the problems are caused by specific brands of CR123 batteries. Introducing this sort of idea into the discussions in this and the other safety related threads makes no sense at all.

It's far more important to discover the causes of these explosions and develop a set of guidelines as to what people can do to avoid this sort of thing happening to them.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

I put the flashlight down after using it about 10 minutes (the battery started to go dim while I was using it and getting hot).

The battery went dim and got hot? How were you aware of the batteries heat while they were still inside the flashlight? How does a battery dim? Im sorry, i dont keep up on battery terminology, i just buy surefire batteries which have given me no problems as of yet so can someone explain to me what that means?

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

When you say you "put the flashlight down," did that include switching it off?

Sorry if that sounds like a no-brainer question, but some of the discussion on the other battery explosion threads seems to indicate that leaving the light on after it goes dim could be a factor in "venting" incidents.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

I always look for the positive aspect of things. After looking at those photos the positive thing in this mishap is that the cheapo Cyclops flashlight seemed to have contained the battery explosion. Apparently there were no dangerous flying projectiles. Room200, welcome to the forum and correct me if I am wrong about no flying projectiles. In these recent mishaps there really does seem to be no common variable except for 123 primary cells. Recent warmer weather comes to mind as a possible issue except that a couple of these mishaps occurred indoors. I still wonder if moisture may have been involved in these mishaps? Just wondering out loud.
jc

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

I should have said the bulbs became dim, not the batteries. Also, When I put the flashlight down, I did turn the unit off. The flashlights have never come into contact with any moisture whatsoever. There were no flying projectiles, thank God!!!! I am going to the doctor today based on all of your suggestions. Thanks.

Re: Cyclops Flashlight Explosion

Originally Posted by Hans

Can we perhaps keep this out of the threads dealing with the problems with CR123 lights? So far it's not at all clear that the problems are caused by specific brands of CR123 batteries. Introducing this sort of idea into the discussions in this and the other safety related threads makes no sense at all..

I'm just wondering when it will be clear...

This makes no sense. If you don't discuss it, how will it ever be clear?